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As students of all ages head back into the classroom this year, back-to-school marketers can take advantage of this sales season with engaging, tailored campaigns and targeted offers. Back-to-school season starts in midsummer or earlier and lasts through early fall, and since there’s a wide range of products and services that land in the back-to-school category, plenty of brands have a chance at reaching new customers, engaging existing ones, and discovering prospects.
Understanding this year’s trends can help marketers decide when to start running back-to-school campaigns, which tactics to use, and how to target desired audiences. Here’s what to know about the top trends in back-to-school marketing in 2026.
The 7 Back-to-School Trends Every Marketer Should Know
1. Back-to-School Spend Reaches $85+ Billion, Led by Electronics
This year, back-to-school retail sales will reach $85.42 billion, up 3.3% YoY from 2025. This includes demand for big-ticket electronics to meet students’ needs for updated devices. Shopping journeys are also starting earlier, according to the same Emarketer data, as early as July, in fact, to take advantage of sales.
Marketers can reach consumers in a wide range of categories. Electronics take the top spot, with $14.7 billion spent, according to the National Retail Federation, with both K-12 and college students buying these. Other categories include clothing and accessories, shoes, supplies like notebooks and pens, tech accessories, backpacks, water bottles, and more. In addition, college students buy furnishings, food and snacks, and personal care items.
2. Clothing Goes Up, Supplies and Books Decline
Stay up to date on what’s new this season to tailor messaging and offers accordingly. Popular items for back-to-school shoppers change from year to year, whether it’s bag charms or erasers. Kids’ preferences affect their parents’ shopping, with 32% of parents saying their children request name-brand or trend-driven items. As students get older, they influence tech buying more, with half of high school parents saying their child influences tech purchases vs. less than a quarter of middle school parents.
This year, clothing is the fastest-growing purchase category for both K-12 and college shoppers, while school supplies and books have declined.
3. Deal Seeking is Up by 19% YoY
Cost savings and finding value are essential for back-to-school shoppers, who estimate spending less this year than last year, according to a NerdWallet survey. 62% of shoppers say they are looking for sales during back-to-school season this year, compared to 52% in 2025. Marketers can consider special offers and deals during this time, using urgency or a sale to close deals or when retargeting.
4. Season Starts Early (June)
Reporting from Smartly found that back-to-school ad spend ramped up in late June in 2025, and even earlier in 2026. Seasonal increases in ad spend were seen in early June, and spending across channels increased 50% on average.
Capital One Shopping, meanwhile, found that 32% of back-to-school shoppers start buying supplies in early June. With back-to-school shopping starting so early, marketers should also test and iterate copy, messaging, and offers early to be prepared for the season. It’s essential to map out the funnel and buyer journeys, too.
With Realize+ (currently in closed Beta), campaigns can autonomously optimize bidding and budget allocation across the back-to-school season, reducing manual adjustments while maintaining performance as shopping behavior shifts.
5. Budgets Are Pushed to the Open Web
When you test and iterate early, you’ll have more time to first introduce products and use cases, then use more urgent messaging as the start of school nears. Early campaign signals can help inform creative and media decisions and reallocate budget accordingly.
Social media still plays an important role in back-to-school shopping, especially in staying aligned with trends and target audiences. That said, its costs and competition during the back-to-school period can be prohibitive for marketers. This is the time to take advantage of the open web to try optimized bidding to maximize conversions.
Realize helps advertisers reach back-to-school shoppers across the open web, beyond social platforms, with targeting that captures intent signals from students and parents as they research purchases on publisher sites.
6. Students Shop for Themselves
There’s a lot of opportunity for fresh, timely imagery and copy during the back-to-school season. The audience spans kids of all ages, college students, parents, and teachers, making it a good season for creative exploration.
Keep all of these audiences in mind when testing and optimizing ad campaigns. Students, even young ones, are themselves often shopping online. A PwC poll found that 61% of parents allow their children some level of direct participation in online shopping. Of those, 40% give kids their own access to add items to the cart.
7. Distinct Back-to-School Buyer Groups
With students active shoppers both online and in-person, creating audience segments can be hugely helpful for back-to-school marketers. You might be advertising to shoppers from elementary to college age, their parents, and teachers or school administrators, all within this roughly two-month period. For each segment, tailor messaging and creative to highlight product benefits for that audience, and use automated features whenever possible for smart segmentation.
Realize’s Predictive Audiences can help identify and reach new back-to-school shoppers who share characteristics with your best converters, automatically expanding your reach to high-intent prospects.
Key Takeaways
Marketers at a huge range of brands have an opportunity to reach a wide range of audiences during back-to-school season. It’s a great time to try creative ad campaigns, tap into trends, and target customers and prospects with fresh offers. Keep an eye on trends, segment audiences appropriately, and test and optimize creative ads for best results.
